Windows 9: What We Know

With Windows 8.1 floundering, Windows 9 rumors have picked up steam. What can you expect from the next version of Windows?

7 Mistakes Microsoft Made In 2013

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After keeping a low profile at last week's International Consumer Electronics Show, Microsoft is back in the headlines this week, thanks to a flurry of reports about Windows 9.

Based on its tepid usage share, Windows 8.1 isn't persuading many people to upgrade. Windows 9 will allegedly offer at least two improvements that could help Microsoft turn things around: the return of the Start menu, and the ability to run windowed Modern apps on the desktop. But if those items sound enticing, you'll have to be patient. The update isn't expected to appear until spring of 2015. Here is what to expect:

1. Windows 9 will introduce not only new features, but also a simpler Windows lineupAs mentioned, Windows 9 is expected to restore the Start menu, which has been absent since the original version of Windows 8. It will also allow Modern apps, currently confined to the tile-oriented Start screen, to be run in floating windows on the desktop, presumably just like legacy applications.

Windows 8.1 brought back Windows 7's start button and added a boot-to-desktop mode that allowed PC users to bypass the tablet-oriented Start screen. The changes haven't been enough to tempt longtime customers into upgrading, let alone into buying new PCs. Perhaps Windows 9's nods to the mouse-and-keyboard crowd will be better received.

To some users' chagrin, Windows 8.1 brought back the Start button but not the Start menu.

Windows 9 will also likely introduce a more unified code base among Microsoft's various Windows platforms. With assets such as SkyDrive, Windows 8 already enables users to seamlessly translate data across various devices and services. Windows 9's common code should only advance this agenda.

After initially mis-marketing how Windows 8 is different from Windows RT, Microsoft might also use Windows 9 to debut a new, more coherent set of offerings: a consumer-oriented version for ARM-based devices that will focus on Modern apps, receive frequent Windows Store updates, and eventually include the merging of Windows Phone and Windows RT; a second consumer-aimed version optimized for desktop software that will still run Modern apps and receive frequent Windows Store updates; and an enterprise-focused version that will receive fewer updates and will be available only through volume licensing.

The restored Start Menu might appear only in the latter two versions, though this point is reportedly up in the air due to the possibility that ARM-based 2-in-1 tablets and all-in-one PCs would benefit from a desktop mode.

2. Microsoft has yet to officially acknowledge Windows 9, but is expected to do so in AprilMicrosoft hasn't confirmed anything about Windows 9, but some of the details echo things Microsoft leaders have said, and all of the information comes from sources with good track records.

ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley reported on December 2 that Microsoft was planning a wave of Windows updates code-named Threshold. The report claimed the updates would arrive in early 2015 and deliver a foundation of "high-value activities" across platforms -- a remark reminiscent of outgoing CEO Steve Ballmer's justification for keeping Microsoft in the consumer business. These activities include Office, Bing, IT management tools, apps, games, and content -- basically every infrastructure point and user experience that might need to extend across devices.

Last weekend, Thurrott said Threshold would be an April 2015 release. His sources claimed Microsoft will introduce the OS at a "vision" level at its upcoming BUILD conference for developers, slated for this April in San Francisco. Thurrott said Threshold development will begin around the same time. He also said BUILD will focus on Windows Phone and Xbox.

Microsoft is likely to call Threshold Windows 9 in order to distance the OS from Windows 8 and 8.1, according to Thurrott's sources.

3. Windows 9 rumors paint Windows 8 as a failureAs the previous paragraph implies, the Windows 9 rumors can be read as an indictment against Windows 8. In public, the company remains confident about "the new Windows." But from bringing back to the Start button to using the name "Windows 9" instead of "Windows 8.x," every decision described in the reports suggest a creeping acknowledgement that the Win 8 strategy simply isn't working.

By all accounts, it isn't working. In the last few years, people have shifted more of their computing to mobile devices and delayed or cancelled PC upgrades. Late 2012 was precisely the wrong time for Microsoft to alienate its core users, but that's exactly what Windows 8 did. Even though Windows 8.1 is a worthwhile (and, for Win 8 users, free) upgrade, Net Applications found that as of December 31, only 3.6% of desktop users had bothered. Almost twice as many users were still running the original version of Windows 8, and seven-year-old Windows 7 gained almost as much ground in December as Windows 8.1 did.

All of this could be somewhat forgiven if Windows 8 had helped Microsoft take a meaningful swipe at Apple's iPad -- but it hasn't. Microsoft's Surface RT evidently sold well on Black Friday at some retail locations, but the device was discounted to the extent that Microsoft won't be making much, if any, money on individual unit sales. Even if you're inclined to view such data in the most optimistic light, it's still clear the Surface line -- and Windows tablets in general -- are living off the iPad's table scraps. The research firm IDC expects Windows tablets to account for only 10% of worldwide tablet shipments by 2017 -- a respectable amount, but still only one-third of the iPad's projected share. With Chromebooks and Android devices eating into low-end sales and Apple's products entrenched among high-end buyers, Microsoft and its OEM partners will face pressure on device prices and margins.

Demand for Windows 8.1 is still pretty flat in the enterprise, Forrester analyst David Johnson told InformationWeek this week in a phone interview. He said some companies have begun to look at Windows 2-in-1 tablets due to employee demand, but that as most businesses consider new tablet deployments, there is "still a strong preference for iOS."

Johnson also said Windows users still want the Start menu back and that some businesses are uneasy about Microsoft's shifting Windows update cycle. If recent reports are accurate, Windows 9 could address both of these concerns -- albeit not for another 16 months.

I have to say that the PM decision to force a touch optimized interface (Metro) down the throats of users on non-touch enabled devices (laptops/PCs), and then disable features that made the product useful on non-touch enabled devices (no boot to desktop/removal of Start Menu), had to be one of the most bone-headed decisions in the history of Microsoft.

Don't get me wrong, I think W8 is a great OS, and coming up with a single OS that looks and works great on all devices is a great idea. But the feature choice that went into the original W8 has to rank as one of the worst blunders in IT history.

What's the point of upgrading an existing PC to Windows 8? There isn't a really good defining reason to do so. Sure, new computers come with the OS standard. But if people were expecting a similar experience when they got version 8.0, they were in for a bewildering episode.

I'm not sure what Microsoft is planning for version 9, but just adding new features and a refreshed UI is really not compelling enough.

[QUOTE]But from bringing back to the Start button to using the name "Windows 9" instead of "Windows 8.x"[/QUOTE]

Does bumping a product's version number indicate the prior version is a failure? What if we applied that to Android and iOS releases? While I don't disagree that there are plenty of things about Windows 8.x that still don't appeal to customers, I disagree that not using 8.2 or 8.3 or 8.5 is evidence of it being a failure.

While it's probably too late, Windows 8.1 did fix most of the "dead ends" that folks experienced in Windows 8. (For example when you are using Win8 desktop IE on a non-touch device and you click on a PDF. Out of the box, the metro PDF viewer appears and it's not at all obvious how to get back to the browser.)

[QUOTE]It will also allow Modern apps, currently confined to the tile-oriented Start screen, to be run in floating windows on the desktop, presumably just like legacy applications.[/QUOTE]

While I welcome the ability run tiled apps in windows on the desktop, I still sense disconnect when folks continue to write about the "two sides" of Windows. Modern tiled apps are really just maximized Windows without borders running on the "desktop". (Of course desktop is really just a virtual term but...) For that matter, the new tiled start menu is no different than any modern app. Of course we could also turn that around and say that the classic desktop is simply a maximized window without borders too. Perhaps this will demonstrate my point: On a device loaded with x86 Win 8.x, go to the desktop and open the familiar task manager. Resize the task manager window so that it's perhaps the 1/4 the size of the desktop (or smaller if you want). Select Options from the menu and select "Always on top". Now go back to the "tiled menu". Start a modern application. Start a desktop application.

It's all just smoke and mirrors. I get it that people don't like it but why does it take Microsoft 15 months to make metro apps run as resizable windows on a desktop? I also understand we can have the start button back and another third party add-on even enables Metro apps to run as windows on the desktop RIGHT NOW. If these strategies are THAT important to the success of Windows 9, it seems Microsoft could release Windows 8.2 this spring. Since this is all just smoke and mirrors, I also suspect it's possible that 8.2 could allow folks to customize their experience and choose whether or not they want the old or new or new-new start menu and whether or not they want to run modern touch apps in windows on the classic desktop.

Of course if they do this, do they risk fragmenting the user experience to the point where developers cringe at testing all the ways folks could be trying to use their apps? Some modern apps already suffer from 8.1's ability to run on lower screen resolutions. There are also apps that don't behave properly when using the split-screen app view. Along with potentially infinite resolutions, infinite desktop window sizes and various forms of split-screen options, it sounds like an even bigger mess that's the worn out topic of almost every blogger and tech journalist.

My attitude is the same - except there is good reason or really killing apps, I won't upgrade from Win8 to Win9. I rely heavily on cloud and web-based applications. The exact OS is not of much importance to me. What I need from OS is the usability and stability. Bringing back the Start menu is a good thing but this is not a strong enough justification for me to go for Win9.

I'm not doing anything different on my Windows 7 machine than I did on my XP machine - there are no new "killer apps" that call for a new OS. The only reasons I even "updated" to 7 were a broken motherboard and XP's upcoming abandonment. Like so many others, I do most things on the cloud, so the OS gets more and more irrelevant. If my impending Chromebook laptop works out, when MS prematurely obsoletes 7 and expects me to shell out again for 9 - I won't.

BTW - it'll be interesting when systems and operations dependant on XP machines supposedly isolated from the internet start failing from virus attacks, and airline reservation systems, ATM networks, retail cash registers and I'm almost afraid to think of what else stop working, it'll be fun watching the government to start forcing Microsoft to provide a fix for "obsolete" XP systems.

Isn't this getting old with MS? Windows Me was a failure. Vista was also a failure and Windows 7 was the fix. Now is Windows 9 going to be the fix for 8? Atleast they are fixing things but why are they breaking Windows in the first place?

There's something sad about the fact that Windows is buttressed by the public's inability to imagine word processing and spreadsheets beyond Office and about the fact that the presence or absence of the Start menu matters to people. I wish Microsoft would focus on apps and operating system capabilities that blow people's minds rather than mulling ways to get people to pay for more or less the same commodity functionality every two or three years.

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